The Truth about Right and Wrong
by winter-willow
Summary: Hermione proves that sometimes those whom we believe to be wrong are actually right and those whom we think are right turn out to be very wrong.


Title: The Truth about Right and Wrong

Author: winterwillow

Genre: Angst/Romance/General

Pairings: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Harry Potter except for the plot and events of this story. All the characters, ect. belong to J.K. Rowling.

Summary: Hermione proves that sometimes those whom we think are wrong are actually right and that those whom we believe are right turn out to be very wrong.

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Hermione stared down at the chair in the center of the room oblivious to the witches and wizards on either side of her who were calling down insults on the man who had just entered the room with an aurour on either side of him holding onto his arms. His dirty blonde hair fell in his eyes that no longer shot silver sparks down her spine but returned her steady gaze with a dull gray cloud of acceptance.

She sat there while the others quieted and Percy Weasley stood up and read the long list of the prisoner's supposed transgressions against the wizarding world. Hermione took a deep breath. She could just leave. Forget him. Let him die. But inside something still tugged at the memory of his smile, even at his trademark smirk. She couldn't just let him die. But it was hardly the time to stand up and proclaim his innocence. She had to wait for just the right moment. Biding her time Hermione dragged her eyes away from his and forced herself to listen to what Fudge was saying.

"So, now that your crimes have been made public do you have anything to say?" He asked sternly of the man sitting in the chair not fifty yards from him.

Hermione could feel his gray eyes probing in her direction and she swore she felt in her heart the moment he gave up. The moment he believed she would just let him die. Of course he had been horrible to her for so long but there had been that one moment of pure bliss. Right then she knew he welcomed death. If even she could turn from him then there was no hope for him. _Well it is a good thing that he doesn't know how much that moment meant to me,_ Hermione thought, _or else he'd definitely be way too cocky at this moment._

Finally Fudge stopped waiting for the answer that was never going to come and turned to the two aurours that stood behind the prisoner. "Mr. Potter. Mr. Weasley. Would you both care to explain how you came to apprehend this criminal to the rest of the court please?" He asked as he sat back down in the high row of seats that overlooked all the rest of the court.

Nodding with a grim smile Harry stepped forward, "Yes Minister. You see Ron and I had been tracking Death Eaters who had been newly appointed. We were hoping one might crack under questioning and give us a name we could really use. Finally we found one and after some artful persuasion by my partner here she gave up the name of Draco Malfoy whom she informed us was directly in Voldemort's inner circle. She also happened to know where he would be the following night. So we followed him to the address that she had indicated and found him sitting on a bench in a muggle park. He looked surprised to see us at the least when we apparated in front of him. He then attempted to run and failed. My partner, Ron, then bound him and we brought him to the prison with that list of crimes that we know he perpetrated."

Ron nodded as if to affirm his story as Harry stopped speaking and stepped back level with him. Hermione forced herself to not jump over the railing at that moment and beat the bloody smirk off of Ron's face as she remembered exactly what methods he had used on that girl to get the information. She had spent the better part of two months healing the girl's physical wounds and she knew for a fact that the girl's emotional wounds were not going to disappear anytime soon.

Fudge stood back up and raised his hands. "Unless someone would like to bring to light some new evidence or would like to vouch for Mr. Malfoy, though I doubt it greatly, this is the time to do so."

Hermione took a deep breath. This was it. It was time for her to speak up. To return a favor and to finally shed some light on the unspeakable and cruel things the so-called good side had done to win. She almost missed her chance as Fudge took a breath to continue on as he felt this was an open and shut case.

"I will vouch for Draco Malfoy." She said calmly as she stood up her voice echoing in the vast room.

"Excuse me." Fudge stuttered as he watched her walk down the stairs to the floor where the prisoner and two aurours were located with varying degrees of expressions on their faces. The two men standing behind the prisoner were growing more and more angry by the minute. Finally one of them couldn't take it any longer and grabbed her by the arm turning her around to face him.

"What is the meaning of this Hermione? Why are you taking up for him? He's a Death Eater just like the rest of them. He isn't even worth being in your presence."

Hermione shook her old friend's hand off of her arm and turned to address Fudge and the rest of the court. "Most of you know me. My name is Hermione Granger. I attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft of Wizardry along with Potter, Weasley and Malfoy. It is no secret that in school Malfoy made my life a living hell and that Ron and Harry were my best friends. Which is why it probably shocks a good majority of you to see me cross both Ron and Harry in order to defend Draco Malfoy of all people.

"The fact is that for three years before Ron and Harry 'caught' Draco Malfoy he had been passing me information directly from Voldemort's inner circle and I had been in turn passing that information along to Albus Dumbledore. He never asked me who my source was and I never chose to divulge that fact. The night that Harry and Ron 'apprehended' Draco Malfoy he was there waiting to give me some vital information about the upcoming attack.

"However I was running late due to Ginny Weasley informing me that I needed to come to St. Mungo's immediately and clean up Ron and Harry's mess. At first I had no idea what she was talking about however upon arriving I realized the situation immediately. In order to get the information they wanted Harry let Ron rape the young girl. Repeatedly. Claire Zabini will never be the same especially since rather recently she managed to come out of her gibberish long enough to let it slip that Harry Potter, yes the same Harry Potter that you all revere, came in and murdered her brother Blaise in front of her with a knife. Not a spell which still would have been unforgivable but with a muggle knife. He murdered him slowly in front of her eyes while he let his best friend rape her. She was only sixteen years old. She had her whole life in front of her and now she has nothing. She was not even a Death Eater as they claim she was.

"Draco Malfoy has done more good in the past three years and placed himself in more harm that any of you will ever know. I ask you now Fudge to release him. In the light of this new information and by your own law he is to be granted amnesty and given over to the person who vouches for his innocence. I await your formal decision. I also ask that you consider stripping both Harry Potter and Ron Weasley of some of their awards as punishment for the crimes they themselves have committed."

Hermione stood still and watched the expressions flow across the Minister's face. She realized the moment he knew that his hands were tied by the law.

"Fine. Draco Malfoy you are hereby granted amnesty under the Spy Clause and are officially released from all charges into the care of Hermione Granger. You will remain under her watch for the next ten years during your probation period." He paused for a moment and pondered the other thing she had brought up. "Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley will both be stripped of the Orders of Merlin First Class pending an investigation of the claim of the life debilitating injuries of Miss Claire Zabini. Court dismissed."

Neville Longbottom, another aurour, stepped forward from the shadows and unlocked the chair that held Draco Malfoy's arms as Harry and Ron seemed to be unable to move. His eyes connected with Hermione's for a moment before he looked away afraid that she would see the crimes he had committed in the name of the ministry as well. The entire court sat in shocked silence as they watched Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor Princess, take hold of Draco Malfoy, the Prince of Slytherin's, arm and help support him as they walked out of the room.

Once they were outside and Hermione had managed to help the weary and hungry Draco get to her car he said something that caught her by surprise.

"Thank you. You didn't have to do it you know. You could have let me die."

Hermione settled herself behind the wheel of the car and didn't respond until she had maneuvered the sedan into the quickly moving traffic.

"Don't thank me yet Draco. I didn't have time to inform you that we will be living as muggles for the next ten years." She glanced at him and watched him smile for the first time in almost a year.

"That's fine with me. I'm done with magic." he said as she pulled in front of a quaint little stone house in the middle of nowhere. "This is nice. Thank you. I still can't believe you didn't just let them have me."

Hermione helped him from the car and up to the porch before she knew exactly what she wanted to say. "I didn't do it for you. I did it for our daughter."

The door opened onto the porch and a beautiful red-headed woman came out followed by a small blonde child with brown eyes. "Da Da." she said her face breaking out into a breathtaking smile.

"Hey Mione, I gotta go to work. I'll call you this weekend and we can go out to a movie or something okay?" The woman said as she slid down the railing to the stone path that led to the driveway.

Hermione nodded as she lifted the child up into the blonde's lap. "Yeah, Ginny. That'll be great. See you later."

"Bye." Ginny said as she apparated back to St. Mungo's Hospital.

Draco looked up from where his daughter was teaching him how to play patty-cake and looked Hermione in the eyes.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

**THE END.**

SHORT BUT SWEET. HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT. PLEASE REVIEW.

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Author's Note:

In case you can't tell I am trying ever so desperately to get rid of an attack of writer's block. In a weird turn of events I actually have the next chapters for all of my other stories written I just feel like they are missing something and I am not going to post them until I fix whatever it is that's wrong. And seeing as how I am not quite sure what is wrong it might be a couple of weeks. sorry. Oh and yesI realized that aurours is spelled differently but when you are trying to type and feed a baby peas which they don't want to eat it gets a bit difficult.


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